TDB accounts office for appointment freeze

TNN | Updated: Jun 13, 2019, 7:46 IST

KOCHI: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) should desist from making new appointments in view of the financial crisis, TDB’s accounts office has recommended. The communique recommending an appointment freeze has been produced before the high court. The letter recommending an appointment freeze sent from Devaswom Accounts Office of TDB on January 30 was produced before the high court in a case filed by Travancore Devaswom Board Employees Front through advocate K R Sunil. The employees’ organization is challenging TDB’s decision to appoint 64 lower division clerks. As per the letter, Devaswom Accounts Office had recommended not to create new posts, upgrade existing posts, or create additional posts through restructuring. The recommendation for implementing an appointment freeze was made by the accounts office after pointing out the fall in revenue from Sabarimala Temple and other temples. Of the 1,250 temples under TDB, only 60 are able to sustain themselves and it is the revenue from Sabarimala that is used for maintaining the remaining temples, the letter said. It also said that it is the unfortunate incidents related to the entry of women to Sabarimala Temple that resulted in a fall in revenue by Rs 99 crore. The decline in revenue at Sabarimala is higher if the usual increase in revenue on an annual basis is also taken into consideration, the accounts office said in the letter.

Revenue from other temples under TDB were also affected in the recent months due to false campaigns from some centres that aimed to destroy Sabarimala and other temples under TDB financially, the letter said. In addition to freezing appointments, the accounts office recommended that construction work at Sabarimala, except at Sree Kovil and those approved by TDB, should be stopped for a year. The practice of granting permissions for constructions at the level of officials should also be put on hold until further order, the accounts office had suggested in the letter.